‘Will go with public view on Citizenship Bill’

Guwahati: Facing massive public protest for its silence on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016, the Assam government on Friday clarified that the government headed by chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal would not take any decision against the sentiment of its people.

Pointing out the helplessness of the government in the wake of Supreme Court’s guideline on National Register of Citizens (NRC), senior cabinet minister and spokesperson of the government Mr Chandra Mohan Patowary told reporters, “The Supreme Court has directed us not to interfere in to ongoing process of updating the NRC. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 is also linked to it so we are waiting for the completion of the NRC work which is in its final stage.”

Asserting that state government is prepared to present its viewpoint to Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) as soon as NRC is updated, Mr Patowary regretted, “There has been a volatile situation in the state since the last 3-4 days over the Bill. A section of people are trying to provoke the general public over the Bill for their own nefarious gains.”

Accusing that deliberate attempt to create public unrest in the state on the Citizenship (Amend- ment) Bill was aimed at to jeopardise the ongoing process of updating the NRC, Mr Patowary said, “The government will give its opinion on the Bill before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) only after the NRC update work is completed. The NRC is a vital constitutional document to safeguard the identity of the people of Assam and the state government will not do anything that could jeopardise its finalisation.” Reminding that incumbent chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal had got the IM (DT) Act scrapped by acting as an individual in 2005, Mr Patowary said, “The intentions of such a person like Mr Sonowal, who had time and again displayed his love for the motherland, should not be questioned by any quarter.”

Launching a frontal attack on Congress party, Mr Patowary displayed the copy of a cabinet resolution and alleged that the-then Congress in Assam in 2014 had adopted a resolution to grant citizenship to persecuted religious minorities from Bangladesh.